UPDATED: Body of Missing Kayaker Recovered

Photo courtesy of TWRA – A command post has been set up at Camp Jordan Park in search for Robert Young, a Rossville man who was reported missing on Saturday after not returning from a kayaking trip on South Chickamauga Creek.

UPDATE: The body of 26-year-old Robert “DJ” Young from Rossville, GA was recovered from Chickamauga Creek just before 1:00 p.m. EDT. TWRA Officers along with STARS Rescue Service, East Ridge Fire, Chattanooga Fire and Chattanooga Police searched last evening and today after Young was reported missing.

Authorities are searching for a missing Rossville man who didn’t return from a kayaking trip on South Chickamauga Creek near Camp Jordan.

According to East Ridge police, a woman reported she dropped off her boyfriend, 26-year-old Robert “DJ” Young, for a kayaking trip at Camp Jordan on Saturday morning at about 9 a.m. The man did not return.

According to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, boaters in the creek reported an overturned kayak to authorities at about 11 a.m. on Saturday morning. The kayak was about 300 yards from the canoe launch in Camp Jordan Park.

Officials searched the area on Saturday until suspending it at 1 a.m. on Sunday morning.

East Ridge Fire Chief Mike Williams said the search for Young continued on Sunday morning commencing at 9 a.m. A command post has been set up at Camp Jordan Park.

Chief Williams said the main search area is within the city limits of Chattanooga, and the Chattanooga Fire Department and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency are leading the effort to find Young.

According to the TWRA, water levels are low on the creek which will help search efforts. Water levels fluctuate between two and nine-feet deep along the search area, officials said.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.